Lighting such as security lighting can be vulnerable to voltage or current surges, damaging the lamp and/or the fixture in which the lamp is mounted. In almost all cases, security lights do not have a dedicated earth ground, and the neutral and ground are tied together at the transformer. This allows transients to build up and with no ground to dissipate those transients, it will eventually damage the light engine and/or driver. This is a well-known problem in the field, with no prior solution known to exist.
Lights that are mounted downstream from an electrical box would normally be grounded. The issue with unresolved transients arises in lights mounted on poles that are upstream of a residential or other separately grounded electrical box, which are the majority of cases. These have the ground and neutral tied together back at the transformer and no dedicated ground fixture.
The same problem can occur with other loads, such as, but not limited to, other lighting circuits, motor circuits other resistive loads, and other electrical and/or electronic equipment.